I think this started
out kind of well-written and nice, then I somewhat got lazy towards
the end. I tried anyway.

--

Dib was annoyed, to say
the lease, and very frustrated. Every second he spent staring at the
green-boy Zim, he became more frustrated. He glared magnified brown
eyes at him, grinding his teeth, confusion and frustration growing to
its peak…

Zim blinked, twitching
slightly, trying to hide it. "What ever are you talking about,
Dib-stink?" he asked innocently, though his contacted violet eyes
showed his annoyance through a glare. He twitched again.

"That! What you just
did! You keep twitching and shaking and sometimes your backpack-thing
sparks. That's not normal!" Dib pointed out with a smirk.
Everyone looked at Zim's mildly sparking PAK, causing him to sink
into his seat.

Dib hadn't missed his
stuttered words; they had sounded more like a broken computer than a
human stuttering. "That sparks dangerous electricity?" he stated
skeptically.

Zim nodded, smiling a
fake nervous smile to the room. "Yes, of course. All the popular
humans have it. Of course, y-you wouldn't know," The alien
smirked as the children agreed, threw some insults at Dib, and then
began ignoring the two again. Zim gave him a 'I win again' look,
making the other growl until the alien twitched again.

"I will find out what
you're planning. Then, I'll stop whatever it—"

"Dib! Sit down and
stop talking," Ms. Bitters interrupted him with a hiss. "Unless
you want to be sent to underground detention where you shall be
doomed."

"Uh, no, Ms. Bitters.
I'll sit." Dib said, getting off his desk and sitting nervously.
From there, the teacher continued on her lesson of doom until lunch.

In the lunchroom, Dib
sat next to Gaz, glaring at the odd-acting Irken. "Look at the way
he's twitching, Gaz," Dib started. "It's not like him. And he
kept stuttering weirdly in class,"

A few hours after
school, Dib did some note-checking. He spent over two hours going
carefully over his many notes on Zim. He didn't find much on what
could be causing him to act this way, but…

"Wait a second!"
Dib announced loudly to himself. "I've got it! But I have to get
more information, first…"

Somewhere in the dark
night, a figure dressed in black, darker than the night itself,
rolled and tip-toed towards a misshapen house. No lights were
on—which was weird since Zim never slept. Did he?

Dib easily strolled
past the inactive lawn gnomes and reached for the handle of Zim's
door. As soon as his pale hand touched it, a trap-door opened up
under his feet and he dropped down.

Dib landed harshly on a
pile of something plushy. He rubbed his head and picked up one of the
fluffy fake items. "Stuffed squirrels?"

--

Earlier that week,
Gir put down a pile of stuffed squirrels, patting them each gently.
Zim walked in and, seeing this, glared at the robot.

"Gir! What are you
doing to my trap-door hole?" Zim asked angrily.

Gir smiled widely,
not sensing his master's fury. "I'm makin' a bed of stuffed
squirrels so the piggies won't get lonely!"

"But how will I
hear when an intruder drops in?!"

"Oh yeah…" He
was told to clean them up immediately, but never did.

--

Dib tossed the stuffed
squirrel away and got up as quietly as possible. Noises were heard
around the giant machine he fell behind.

"Computer! What is
happening to me?" Dib instantly recognized the voice as Zim's.

Dib looked around the
machine and spotted the green alien boy in plain sight, arguing with
his computer.

"Well, sir, if
you'd just put your PAK on the table, I could examine it for you,"
the computer said with a hint of boredom and annoyance.

"But Zim needs his
PAK to—"

"It won't take
long!"

There was a short pause
of nervousness and twitching from Zim. "…Fine. Just hurry up!"
Dib's eyes widened under his glasses as Zim carefully removed his
PAK, placing it on the table next to him. Dib smiled. So he was
right…

He snuck over to as
close as he could get to the PAK as possible without being caught.
Zim finally turned away from the alien device to check the scan
progression on the computer screen. That's when the raven-haired
boy took his chance, lunged forward, and snatched up the PAK, holding
it up triumphantly. Zim turned around in surprise.

"Filthy human! How
did you get in here? Why was I not informed?!" Zim yelled in shock.

Dib smirked, clutching
the PAK tightly, on-guard. This was Zim's turf. Anything could
happen… Why did he decide to do this again? Did thought nervously.
He stabled himself as well as he could. It was for research. This had
to be done.

Zim took a careful step
towards the scythe-haired boy. He held out his gloved hand.
"Dib-human… Just give me the PAK. Now,"

Dib's eyes shot up.
Was Zim nervous, too? But why? He looked down at the machine in his
hands. Was this that important? A gleam shone on his glasses as he
developed a very crude idea.

"So, Zim," he
smirked deviously, earning a suspicious look from the alien, "what's
so great about this pile of junk anyway?" He tossed it up
and down. For being that size with al that technology in it, it felt
extremely light. Zim watched it with wide-eyes.

"It is not this
'junk', human. It is a very, very important piece of Irken
technology and I would be very pleased if you returned it to Zim,"

"Ah-ah, Zim. Any more
insults and I smash this thing." Zim took a fearful step back.

"Y-you wouldn't,"
he said weakly, all his rage diminished. "I need that. Give
it before it's too late!" He could already feel his body
weakening, having to concentrate to stay standing and to speak, his
vision was greatly dulled.

"Too late for what?"

""None of your—"
Zim started, but stopped once Dib acted like he was going to drop the
PAK. "It's my… My, uh…" Zim held a hand to his head,
feeling woozy. He sat, unable to hold himself up any longer.

The computer chuckled a
little, before speaking. "Zim is dying." It stated bluntly.

"What!?" Dib stared
at Zim. "Why!?"

"Because, you stupid
human, you have his life-force,"

"His what?"

The computer groaned.
"The PAK. The thing you have been holding this whole time. That's
what keeps the Irkens alive. Once you take it off, the Irken only has
about ten minutes to live,"

"Then…why was Zim
twitching and stuttering so much today?" Dib continued, feeling
more informed on Zim's condition made him feel a little better. At
least he knew he could control whether Zim lived or died.

"Because his PAK is
damaged."

"What's wrong with
it?" He flipped it around, looking for signs of damage.

"According to the
scan I took from it… The PAK has a gelatin-like substance inside of
it. If you place it on that table over there, I can quickly and
easily remove it," It paused. "If you, his greatest enemy, so
wishes for Zim to even live."

Dib thought that over
for a few minutes. Zim was, indeed, his and the Earth's greatest
enemy. Though, the alien had been on this planet for over a year now
and not caused much, if any, damage to anything. So far, he seemed
all bark with no bite.

And if Zim was dead,
where would Dib be? He would be back to his normal life before Zim,
where not a single soul spoke to him (and if they did, it was just to
mock him), and nobody realized his smarts or potential. He had no
purpose before Zim. Zim gave him a purpose. Without Zim, life was
meaningless all over again.

He couldn't go back
to that.

Zim was on his stomach
now, breathing harsh and in slow breaths. Dib gasped, quickly getting
up and putting the PAK on the metallic table. Some vacuum-looking
thing appeared and sucked all the jello-like substance from inside
the PAK.

"Done. Good as new."
The computer announced.

Dib snatched it and
quickly re-attached it to Zim. Zim was motionless for a few seconds
and Dib feared the worst. He let out a huge sigh of relief once the
alien slowly sat up. Zim blinked a couple times, before his vision
settled clearly on Dib. His strength was returning. Once his mind was
unscrambled and back into it's natural order, he managed to fully
glare at the smiling Dib.

"Don't ever do that
to Zim again!" Zim threatened.

Dib half-laughed. "I
won't. At least I saved you,"

Zim coughed into a
fist. "Yes, but…whatever. Now get out of my base, pathetic
human!" he ordered.

Dib jumped up, trench
coat waving dramatically behind him as he pointed. "Fine! But I'll
be back, Zim, to foil your plans! Remember this—as long as I'm
around, the Earth will be protected!"

"Not as long as Zim
can help it!" No stuttering, no twitching. Yes, his PAK was truly
back to normal and so was Zim. Dib smiled to himself as he was chased
out of Zim's base.

Zim stood by the door
as Dib ran out. "Oh, and Dib-stink?"

"Yeah?" Dib paused,
turning around.

"Thanks for saving
me." He gave the human a small smile.

Dib smiled back at him.
"No problem. Thanks for being here for me."

--

Wow, I was
completely lost on how to end this. I'm not exactly happy with how
it ended up, but I feel alright about it. My second Invader Zim
oneshot anyway.

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